# Take It Simple

Source: https://www.theminimalists.com/simple/
Published: 2013-11-11
Updated: 2024-06-12
Author: Joshua Fields Millburn

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Growing up in Ohio, you couldn’t go a day without hearing three words: take it easy.

As a fond farewell I’ve heard this exclamation so many times it’s ingrained. Midwesterners are programmed to recite this locution whenever a conversation or meal or meeting adjourns. Goodbye. See you later. Take it easy.

But the other day, as I waved goodbye to the FedEx delivery woman leaving my office in Missoula, I surprised myself when out of nowhere I hollered “take it simple.”

I have no idea why I blurted *simple* instead of *easy*, but I did, and I liked the subtle change, a slight twist of phrase that radically altered the idiom’s meaning. So I began using it as my new farewell—*take it simple*—in emails and face to face. (You’re welcome to do the same.)

Although both words seem similar, *easy* and *simple* are not synonyms. In fact, if anything they are antonyms. Something is *easy* when it’s achieved without great effort. *Simplicity* on the other hand involves plenty of deliberate effort, intention, rigor, attention to detail. A disastrous forest fire is easy; elegant fireworks are simple.

You see, *easy* just happens, but *simple* is planned, [carefully curated](https://www.theminimalists.com/details/), well executed.

Me? I’m a simple man. I live a simple life, not an easy one.

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